Spring Term
Today we went to Mansfield Library to meet two authors who told us about their books and stories! Rob Bidulph drew a whale with us all and told us the story of Gignatic, the tiny whale with a big mean brother. Jane Clarke told us all about her dinosaur Cove books! We made a mask, bracelet or other item of custume for a book character, helped by local artist Clare Taylor and we thought about why we like books and what helps us to choose a good book. We all then chose a World Book Day book to take home. Plus we met Elmer the Elephant! What an amazing morning we had! Thank you to World Book Day and to Mansfield Library for inviting us!
Our Spring Term topic is 'Explorers'.
We had an amazing start to our topic! We followed maps around the school which led us to a huge bag. Inside the bag there were lots of items such as kettle, stove, food pouches, trekking poles, sleeping bag, water bottles and many other things. We decided that the bag must belong to an explorer!
History
During our topic, we have learned about lots of different explorers to support our learning. Here are some of our key explorers:
Christopher Columbus - who discovered the Americas by accident!
Ernest Shackleton - whose incredible resilience allowed him to save all his crew after they got stranded in Antarctica!
Harriet Chalmers Adams - who travelled to South America
Nellie Bly - who travelled around the world in just 72 days!
The Wright Brothers - who were responsible for the first flight
Harpreet Chandi (Polar Preet) - an explorer who recently made history for the longest solo trek across Antarctica
Geography
We started off our geography learning by looking at the 4 compass points - we then made our own compasses during our forest school session.
We learned about the world's seven continents and five oceans. We spent lots of time on this to help us remember them. We sang songs, did jigsaws and labelled maps.
After learning about Ernest Shackleton and Harriet Chalmers Adams, we compared the places that they explored. One was very hot and the other was very cold. We learned that this was because the Earth is colder nearest the poles and warmer near the equator. We then labelled both on our world maps.
We used the journey of Nellie Bly to look at how to use the compass points to give directions on a map. We then spent some time learning about maps. We learned about human and physical landmarks and their symbols on a map. We studied aerial photographs and how they can be used to draw sketch maps.
Forest Schools
To support our topic, we have been taking part in forest school sessions led by Mrs B. Each class had 4 sessions and during these sessions we took part in a wide range of activities. We learned about how explorers would know where they were going and made compasses. We learned how explorers would need warmth and shelter to survive - we then made dens and sat around a fire pit. We also had a great time taking part in outdoor activities including stepping stones, rope swings, strap line, digging and using binoculars.
Art
While we were learning about the five oceans of the world, we looked at seascape art work by J. M. W. Turner. We discussed his work, how it was created and how it made us feel.
We then wanted to create our own seascape paintings. We started by recapping hot and cold colours. We then experimented with adding white and black to our pure colour (blue) to create tints and tones. Finally, we created our own seascapes!
Design & Technology
Our DT project was to design and make an exploration vehicle. We started by researching what vehicles might look like and testing materials that we might use. We then learned how to attach wheels to a vehicle using axles and a chassis, we also experimented with strengthening our chassis. We drew a design of our vehicle and then began making. We worked together to transform a shoebox into a prototype vehicle. We used a jig to measure where to punch the hole for the axles and a handsaw to cut a piece of dowel to the right size for the axles. Then we added the wheels. Finally, we added the body and painted it. At the end of the project, we tested our vehicles and evaluated them.
Outcome - Explorers Exhibition
To finish off our topic we held a special exhibition of all our work for our grown-ups. We performed a presentation to share what we have learned. We then had time to show our adults our work. We had our topic books, our vehicles, displays of our work and a slideshow of our photos. Our teachers and grown-ups were so proud of us!
World Book Day 2023
We had a fantastic time celebrating world book day! We were able to dress in pjs, comfy clothes or as our favourite book character.
Our day started off with the teachers 'pitching' their favourite stories. We were then able to choose the teacher that did the best pitch and go with them to share the story.
We had a brilliant story telling session from 'Tales of the Heartwood'.
We also entered the book token design competition, did a show & tell of our favourite books and had hot chocolate and biscuits while sharing a story. We also had a competition to see who could be found reading in the most interesting place.
